Notre Dame will play one more season in Big East

As Mike Brey and his staff compile a basketball schedule for the 2013-14 season, they have clarity about the league they'll call home: Notre Dame will play one more season in the Big East.

The Irish will spend one more season in the conference they've been a part of since 1995 before moving to the ACC the following season, Brey said during a Thursday teleconference.

"We do know we'll be in the Big East next season," Brey said on a teleconference. "That decision was made last Friday. So thank God we have some direction, we will play in the Big East next year.

"And I'm OK with that. I've had a little buyer's remorse on the ACC and going through the league and playing in these different buildings and wondering if it's going to be the last (visit)."

On Sept. 12, Notre Dame announced it would leave the Big East for the ACC, and the only question was when. Athletic director Jack Swarbrick, at the time, said the school would look to "accelerate the timetable" for departure.

But the conversations with the Big East basically did not proceed at a quick enough rate, and Swarbrick's coaches began asking for clarity so they could set up their non-conference schedules for next season -- a particularly pressing issue for fall sports.

"It sort of comes across as more of a decision than it probably merits," Swarbrick said in a phone interview Thursday. "As we said from the outset, we felt it was in both parties' interest to discuss an earlier departure. You engage in that process and it's ongoing and you just reach a point in it where scheduling complexities for next year catch up with you."

Big East bylaws mandated a 27-month waiting period before departure and there was some thought that Notre Dame -- which wouldn't owe the league a penny of relocation fees if it waited that long -- would negotiate an early exit to jump in with fellow Big East exports Syracuse and Pittsburgh for the 2013-14 athletic calendar.

That evidently is not to be.

"It's certainly relevant in terms of who we're playing next year, but in terms of a development regarding our discussions with the Big East, it's sort of a non-event," Swarbrick said. "If discussions had reached a conclusion in time, we might be doing something different. They hadn't. We'll continue the discussions."

But Swarbrick pumped the brakes on the assumption that 2014-15 is a for-sure start date in the ACC; to begin with, it wouldn't fit the 27-month wait requirement that likely will hold up no matter who is in the Big East. Notre Dame would have to negotiate out of that 27-month wait, which essentially means it would need to pay up.

"I think it'd be unfair to represent that," Swarbrick said, when asked about a 2014-15 start. "The negotiations continue. Obviously you've got a different dynamic now with seven Catholic schools having expressed their intention to leave. What sort of had the potential to be a two-party negotiation is not anymore."

Brey said he's fine with staying put for 2013-14, citing a bit of "buyer's remorse" in shifting to the ACC. And Notre Dame is confident that the non-football playing members of the Big East -- the so-called "Catholic 7" -- also will be part of the league one more year before breaking off into their own league.

"I feel strongly that the Cathiclic schools are going to be there with us," Brey said. "That's one of the reasons we decided to sit tight. It looked like the Catholic schools were not going to be able to formulate the league they're going to put together. Could they put it together in the next six weeks? Nothing would shock me."

As it stands, Notre Dame has planned a non-conference schedule that includes Indiana in the Crossroads Classic, Ohio State in the Gotham Classic at Madison Square Garden and Santa Clara making a visit to Purcell Pavilion.